The Antique Style

Antiquity is the architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. In order to create the apartment interior in the antique style it is necessary to make a re-planning of the apartment so that the main room has to turn into a rectangular hall with other rooms located on its perimeter. Also, put smooth columns with lotus–shaped capitals along the edges of the hall. Set rectangular beams to lean on those columns. Arrange a relief cornice with floral ornaments or complex polygonal bas-reliefs along the perimeter of the ceiling. The entire interior has to be accentuated by simplicity, delicacy and the lack of unnecessary details.

Until recent time, we were limited in our conceptions of the look of the Greek dwelling house by oblique sources such as images on vases and bas-reliefs. In 1920s the excavations of the Greek city of Olynthus in Halkidiki had began. That peninsular was destroyed by the dictate of the king Philip of Macedon in the north Aegean Sea. The results of those excavations were indeed excellent. And during them the residential neighborhoods of V-beginning of IV century BC were disclosed.
Thus, it became known that some living quarters were colored, the walls were painted just on the plaster with the horizontal stripes of red, white, yellow, and blue tones.

A small amount of furniture, construction of which is similar to the Egyptian was an integral part of the room decor. The basic material for such furniture was wood (maple, beech, cedar, cypress). However, sometimes marble or bronze were used for low tables – round or rectangular, stools, and chairs with backs, armchairs with armrests on straight or slightly curved legs, the costs down, and high beds.
Masters paid special attention to legs form. They were often made in the form of animal paws with claws or toes of cloven-hoofed animals. Also, wooden chests for storing clothes were common and replaced the wardrobes. The simplicity of the Greek furniture and expertly finished details are great features.

Vases were very popular at houses. They had a decoration sense as well and, in addition to its utilitarian purpose, complemented the finishing of the room. They kept there wine, olives, corn and so on, and so forth. Also, the food was served on the table. Those vases were of different sizes – from very large, accommodating many liters of wine or grain, to very small, such as vials. Ceramic vases were covered with plot and ornamental paintings.
The ornament was always on the foreground. Initially motifs of oriental origin (sphinxes, griffins) dominated, but lately they were forced out by geometric scenes (square wave pattern) or taken from the life of nature.